Believe it or not, this is actually the second thing I had written for this when it was originally a group of just 7 ficlets. The first chapter was actually the fifth thing I wrote. Snippets of trivia nobody asked for, awaaaay! I'm actually proud of how far this thing has come though.

That said, thanks to everyone still reading, thanks for the comments, faves and follows! :)

"Sans!" His father snapped at him from the other room. "For the love of God, would you please cooperate." Hehehe, he could hear Gaster was at his wits end by the tone in his voice. Good. Sans was bored and having a bad, bad day and the sometimes the best way to amuse himself in here was to wind his father up until he snapped. Some days it took longer than others, but he was actually getting pretty good at it. Plus, he was real close to something big on a side project, he knew it, he just needed space and time to work on it. haha, that's a good one, considering.
"tibia honest, i don't feel like it today." He quips lazily, laying back on his bed and looking at the 'stars', hand glowing a lazy blue as it held the bookshelf against the bedroom door frame with the door hanging open. Doing it that way held it more flush against the wall, and the handle didn't get in the way. He feels his father's magic push back against his - probably hands. He just keeps it steady for now, although he knows that if push becomes shove he'll lose. Sure he might win on brute strength if he threw every ounce of magic into it, and only might, but his father would definitely win on pure stamina. He didn't think he'd ever seen him tire using magic.
"You're being a child."
"'bout time." He feels the prodding magic falter in it's trying to find a gap. Oh, had he hit a nerve? "nah, couldn't have hit a nerve, you're a skele-ton harder than that."

He really shouldn't take it out on his father, he knows, but it wasn't a day where he could push back his darker thoughts enough to play nice with the other staff. He had knew the trigger this time, but it wasn't anything that he could do from in here which had started off the spiral of being trapped and worthless. But he still called and listened anyway.

"If that's the way you wish to play this today, then fine." The probably-hands disappear from against his magic, and Sans waits for a moment.

Two.

He slowly cracks a gap and his father has walked away. Huh. That was a lot easier than expected. Almost... too easy. Mind you, he had done the verbal equivalent of swinging below the belt, so maybe not. He places the shelf back in its place and grabs out the last book he was reading without moving from his spot on the bed. He'd originally been reading about feedback loops within climate science and mechanical engineering to see if there was a way to apply the principle to the CORE'S current design to solve the current wasted energy problem that his team he was currently placed with was working on, but… he wasn't in the mood for being helpful today. Instead, he took out his notebook and the book tucked inside the book on quantum entanglement, margin notes on space-time curves, and the path integral formulation and gave his painstaking meshing of them a read over again. Seems as solid as it's ever going to be, not like messing with quantum mechanics is ever going to be a dead cert anyway, not even with magic to help it along. Now, theoretically, this side project was possible. But he'd yet to actually crack it. Probably because he was pretty sure he was actually going insane from being helplessly cooped up and this was the peak of that insanity in reality. But, hey. a fella's gotta do something with his free time, right?

An alarm went off by the assistant's post, and he hurriedly checked the cameras. Weird. Sans was just sat reading notes and books. The hand was blue, but nothing in the room actually indicated that he was doing anything at all that would set of the alarm they'd had fitted after the incident to detect abnormally high magic levels in the area. He texts the boss anyway, and it's not long before the watch post is filled with Gaster's intimidating presence.
"What is he doing?"
"I don't know. Nothing by the looks of it, but he's definitely channeling magic. His hand's blue so… gravity, right?"
Gaster sighs in frustration. "I will keep an eye on him. Go to the DT labs and see if they need a hand on the research or building there. And I need a coffee. Not in that order."
"O...kay..."

Gaster settles himself in to wait, equal parts curious, wary, and annoyed.

It's really hard to focus magic on something you can't see. But, he's not doing this uninformed by any means. Years of quiet side research - it had started out as an interest that had spiralled when he realised the humans actually had started om a theory he could work with - and it hadn't easy by any feat considering that he knows he is being watched the whole time but he has his ways. He'd figured out the new cameras within months, boredom was a good motivator to find things like blind spots once pap had broke through his initial void of depression. He'd started with theorising and testing his limits during practice in subtle ways (part of the fun there is trying to not get caught) and he knows it should be possible if the science is as sound as it seemed. Sans pushes a little more gravity into the space in front of him, looking around him cautiously. He's half expecting someone to cut in on him, like they always did, but (weirdly) they seem to be leaving him to his own devices today. He reaches deeper into his magic reserves, and feels it feed back into hand and left eye socket. The glow dies as he takes a sharp breath of pain. Shit. Shit shit shit, that hurt. He takes a minute to rub at the eye socket and let the pain pass somewhat, before tapping a phalange on his teeth thoughtfully. maybe a focus point will help. Casting magic on subatomic levels was going to be finicky as it was, maybe having something visible to manipulate around would be easier. Also the object's own mass would begin the curve instead of him having to do it from scratch. Okay, so, this sounds like a plan. the heavier, the better, but not too big.

Gaster watches, mug in hand, as his son moves across the room and picks up a paperweight one of the staff had given to him… at some point. Maybe at gyftmas? Gaster can't remember. He goes back to the bed and sits back on it cross-legged, paperweight making a dimple in the bedsheets, and the left hand starts glowing again. Gaster expected it to do… something, but again it's just him channeling enough magic that the quiet alarm kicks back in.
What on earth are you doing, Sans?
Both wariness and frustration have both dissipated into an overwhelming curiosity, and he wraps his other hand around the other side of the mug, leaning forward towards the screen that's now transfixing him.

The magic he was pulling was taxing, it felt like he'd been in the test room for two days straight, but he ignores it and adds more gravitational force to the layer under the paperweight. A sweat breaks out across his skull, but he keeps on adding to the gravitational force on the point he was focused in on, careful not to pull too quickly from too deep again and cause the magical feedback. hopefully.

It's been 40 minutes and the sound of the alarm is starting to give Gaster an ache in his skull. He drains what's left in the mug.

...It's weird. All sci-fi mediums and the movies build it up like there's going to be a light show or a visible tear when you move the fabric of space-time enough to pass something through it and yet, it just… vanishes, the paperweight dropping from view like a stone in a puddle. There's no big light show, no sound, not even ripples, it's just… there, then not there. It actually takes a full minute of blinking for Sans to realise what he'd just done. Excitement creeps into Sans' eyelights as Gaster drops the mug. The alarm stops. The viewing room is left in deafening silence. Sans looks directly at the camera from where he's sat, still unaware that his father is specifically the one watching him now. If he'd known that, he would have taken a bow.

this. i can work with this. but for now? nap time. turns out breaking reality leaves you bone tired, heh.

A day and a half Sans slept for. Gaster had found the notes in that time but it was like Sans had written them in a way that was deliberately obtuse; notes written both in Gaster's symbols as well as mono font, but it would flip between both in one sentence, sometimes even mid- word, equations were broken up in a way that Gaster couldn't easily piece them together, and he's pretty sure the latter half is in a cipher. So he knew the words and what they meant, mostly, but it was like trying to pieces together a puzzle with no edge pieces and no picture. Who was he kidding, that's exactly what Sans had done, writing them in a way that's obtuse on purpose, and Gaster was about ready to climb out of his skeleton by the time Sans woke up because his scientific curiosity was overriding just about everything else. He wasn't too concerned about the sleeping - the crashes were nowhere near as sudden or as bad as wgen he was younger, but they still happened - and Gaster was there almost instantly the minute he stirred.

"hehe, knew it." Are the first words out of his son's mouth and Gaster really wants to shake him right now. The fact that they were also means Gaster has the added frustration of his current episode not being over and Gaster struggles to know what to say when he's like this. Although, he reminds himself, antagonistic is better than silence.
"Good afternoon to you, too." Gaster replied, only half ready to throttle him. well, that's good enough.
"aww, anyone would think you cared." Sans quips, teasing tone in place but designed to needle.
"I do care, despite what you seem to think." And it was true, he did love Sans, but that doesn't stop the frustration in his tone either. The barb from his son needled at him enough that he felt the curiosity drop out of him almost entirely. "How are you feeling?"
"with my hands and body. which is really weird when you consider we've got no nervous system." He definitely still wants to throttle him though - but in a loving way.
"You are insufferable."
"nah, I'm sans. sans the skeleton, nice to meet'cha." He winks at his dad. "so… what do you want?" Like he doesn't already know. Gaster picks up the small pile of notes and drops them in his son's lap. He sees the smirk in his eyes. "you liked my project? good, i put a lot of backbone into it."
"Sans."
"tibia honest, I thought you would have figured it out by now."
"Your bad puns aren't going to derail this discussion."
"i know. but i'm bored out of my skull, and i've got to tickle my funny bone somehow."
Gaster just sighs in frustration. "What did you do?"
"you've read the notes." Sans shrugs, knowing that he's really winding Gaster up.
"It's like reading a dissertation from a three year old."
"i take offense to that. you'd have to be at least three and a half to write a dissertation. maybe four."
"Sans. Why do you insist on behaving like this?"

"because now I know something you don't know." He says it smugly, and for some reason he drops his font as he does. Gaster's not sure why, but it's back as he continues. "you'll figure it out eventually, i know that, but hey. gotta do somethin' with my free time. the core's shell is almost built now, i definitely think the team is onto something with the feedback loop it's just figuring out how to extend the current cooling system to deal with the heat energy going back in, so I figure that driving you nuts is the next thing on my to do list. but why not do it simultaneously, i can multi-task."

Gaster levels him with a flat look. "Really."

"yep. you're still stuck on theories as far as my magic goes, you haven't figured out how to increase the damage, you haven't figured out what's capping my hp apparently, and if you, royal scientist doctor wingdings gaster, haven't managed in… i forget how many years now-" lie: he knows exactly how many years it's been "-it's not gonna happen. but, being your little lab rat has helped lead to breakthroughs in soul study as far as the discovery of traits, and the all new things you found when you studied the humans souls to find out more about those and the fact they can exist in monsters souls but not as much, et cetera, that you're setting up to isolate and study them individually. especially determination. i've made my peace with never getting out of here, but it gets real boring sometimes. so i'm gonna amuse myself for a while." A lot of what he says reminds Gaster that Sans is a lot more observant than Gaster remembers to give him credit for a lot of the time. He also is observant enough to know when this mood started happening but has no idea how to fix it.

Gaster wonders in the back of his mind somewhere how they ended up going back to this song and dance with how well things had seemed. "I don't think of you as a lab rat, Sans. I am trying to help you. That's all I've ever done."
Sans looks at him now, taking in every inch of body language being thrown at him. "...huh. you still believe that."
"Because it's true!" He sees the frustration rise up through his father. Sans stands and stretches out, shrugging the last of the sleep out of his bones and walks out of the room to find food, leaving his father to think on that one. He leaves the notes for his father to take. Let him add it to the pile of breakthroughs, Sans doesn't care. At least he would have been good for something.

"whatever you say, doc."

Life went on as normal – well, as normal as his life gets – for the next couple of weeks. Well, except that since their 'chat', the doc had been trying to make life a little easier, so Sans had responded in kind by going back to helping on the projects on finishing the core and helping build machinery for the DT labs as much as he still didn't really feel like it. His free time was spent trying to figure out how to specify an end point in space for a moved object, but once the initial breakthrough had been made things slotted into place easier. And although it still used a fairly large amount of magic to move an object from one space to another, it was like everything else – practice made it easier. Once he figured out how to move an object to specifically from A to B, he then started experimenting with bigger and more varied objects. It then moved on again from just opening 'portals' underneath things to opening them vertically and nudging objects through either with a ruler or with magic. He had yet to actually try sticking a hand in it. Although this was kind of the end point, curiosity did not yet outweigh the risks and he'd had to do some final tweaks and calculations before risking that.

Things were going a lot faster now he was experimenting without keeping it too secret like when he was researching in the first place. And Gaster hadn't figured it out yet, Sans didn't think, but he wasn't going to have much longer. He looks over the new equation carefully. Welp. It's not like he's got anything to lose, and if it's as sound as the science in front of him, he may well give it a shot. It's going to be his only way out, he's sure, if he can nail it. He sets himself up with a book so he's sat casually reading, but so all the cam will see is his back. He sets up a vertical entry point at his fingertips and increases the gravity there, using his own hand for the curve rather than the book. It takes a little bit to be sure it's stable. He's just about to try reaching in, when-
"Hey, w-what are you up to in here? Do you n-need anything?"
Damn. He doesn't even look around at the intern who'd obviously been set up on camera duty. "reading and no."
"O-okay… and you're actually d-doing?"
He turns just his head to look at her, lifting the book with his right hand. "reading. not a lot else to amuse myshelf with."
"O-oh… ha, i get it..." she gives a quiet chuckle, but a concerned look is on her face. "maybe the alarm is f-faulty or something…" she mutters to herself, so quietly he almost missed it whilst winding her claws together as she walked away.
"alarm?" The magic drops from his hand and he turns himself right around to look at her. Her claws go up to her mouth.
"Oh no, oh dear, I d-didn't say a-anything about an a-alarm." She tries to speed up, and he follows.
"what alarm?" he thought he knew everything about this place, sneaky bastard.
"Thehighlevelmagicdetector!" It comes out as a single word, nearly, followed by a quieter "Please don't hurt me." She wilts, looking at him fearfully. It stabs at him painfully, and he drops it without a second thought. He turns away from her, and she watches as his shoulders drooping as he shoves his hands in his pockets. It makes her pause, makes him look sad and older than his years, although she can tell he's trying to be casual.

"whatever. i've got a skele-ton of work to do, just go back to the screens. i won't say anything about knowing about the alarm."

Now she just feels bad after watching his reactions to the words having been taken off guard by them and not quick enough to hide it. "I-I'm sorry. I k-kinda over reacted, d-didn't I? G-geeze, what a way to m-make a first impression... I'm the intern here, m-my na-"
"i don't care. i don't need your name or a face to put to it." He says quietly, feeling the edges of a familiar void of feeling trying to gnaw at him where he words had just exasterbated the feelings he'd been struggling with constantly for a long while now. now he just wants her to leave. "go back to your screens and so you know... you only need to come down if i decide to blow something up. other than that, you text gaster."

She flusters for a minute then turns on her heels and runs out. Okay, so, he feels bad about being harsh on top of everything else, but he can't really see how it matters unless he's working on the team at that moment in time. and even then, it's pointless in the end. He figures he now has about 20 minutes before she gets back to the room. Well, now or never, unless someone else hears the alarm... which that little tidbit explains a lot. He focuses on the bookshelf and holds up his left hand and rests it on the wall. Blue flares to life, and he pushes magic into the curve.

It's an odd sensation, as his fingertips sink into the portal, suddenly sinking into an area outside of space and coming out the other end. He feels solid under his fingertips, and he feels… books? Holy shit that's a book! He snags it and pulls it out, mood rebounding from where it had plummeted down to right up in the realms of ecstatic.

"Seems to me like you're getting the hang of doing the impossible."

He drops the book in surprise, aaaand there goes his mood again. "eh, 'sup doc? i didn't expect you to be around yet."
"I thought I would come and investigate why I found the intern crying in a supply closet in the hall rather than being at her assignment." Sans gives a loose shrug, keeping the shame out of his face and posture. Gaster narrows his eyes at him.
"and you assume it was me because…?"
"I dont assume things, Sans. I make educated guesses at the very least. And if you must know, she text me 10 minutes ago that she was coming to check on you, and to introduce herself as she hadn't had the chance yet, then I get a second text to tell me the intern's gone awol." Gaster folds his arms, staring at his son all but oozing diasapproval.

"maybe it's because she's a cry-ceratops?" Maybe he should definitely go apologize.

"You should to get over whatever us making you behave like this sooner rather than later; I thought you were supposed to be talking to me and Papyrus through your bad days and yet you've gone right back to pushing us away. Which is fine, until you start upsetting the staff." Gaster's having none of it today. "You don't just work with these people, you live with them whether you like it or not. Maybe if you stopped holding them at arm's length you might find life a bit easier here. Certainly more comfortable. At the very least, you might find some company you enjoy holding that's not just Papyrus. But what do I know?" the question is rhetorical, but cuts into Sans in a way he didn't expect. He definitely should go apologize. With nothing more to say, he turns and walks away.

Sans sighs, and leaves the room shortly after his father, slippers making almost no noise on the tiled floors outside of his living area. He doesn't get far before he hears muffled sniffles, it sounds like the worst of her crying is over. He follows the sounds of her trying to pull herself together, knocking softly on the closet door twice. "knock knock."
"I-I'm s-sorry, just give me a m-minute."
"you're supposed to say 'who's there'."
"O-oh. Uhh…. Who's there?"
"interrupting skeleton."
"Inter-" that's as much as she can say before he opens the door and walks in. She looks at him stunned, then starts to laugh softly where she's sat, claws over her mouth. Sans sits himself beside her, pulling the door closed as he steps across the small space between them. She doesn't move except to shift her tail around herself tighter so that he's got room to sit.

"I owe you an apology." The words come from them simultaneously, which gets a chuckle from both.

"ok… you go first because I'm not sure why you need to." he rests his head back against the shelf behind them as he says it.
"W-well, I… I feel b-bad for o-overreacting. You haven't d-done anything wr-wrong and I've seen you w-working in your team and y-y-you're always nice… funny, too… b-but I let the stories get the b-better of me…"
Stories? Nah, he'll ask later. And the compliments make him glad they're in a dimly lit closet because he can feel the warmth on his cheekbones. "i shouldn't have followed you out... or said what i did."
"I-it's ok, really." She puts a hand on his knee. "I… I think I get it. The p-people who work here, m-most of them have worked here for a really long time, and they t-told me about what happened y-years ago and f-for someone who's not spoken to you themselves t-to b-be scared b-before you've even really talked to them… it c-can't feel good. Th-that's why I c-came in here, I got so worried th-that I'd upset you th-that I got so wound up I c-couldnt calm down and then i c-couldn't face g-going back into a r-room of p-people."
That… surprises Sans. A lot. He shrugs, and the fabric of his hoodie rustles against her lab coat in the quiet pause. "nah, 'sall good. i got thick skin." She laughs quietly again. "so… how about we try again? i'm sans, sans the skeleton. nice to meet'cha."
"I'm A-Alphys, I'm so g-g-glad I get to work with you a-and your father. I've l-looked up t-to him for a long t-time."
"well, he is pretty tall."
"Good thing you're c-closer to m-my height then!" Alphys returns with a shy smile, which makes him chuckle.
"c'mon, time we both got back to work." He stands, offering her a hand. She takes it and allows him to help her back onto her feet.

Sans, honestly, never intended to let her get close to him. He was planning on doing the usual thing of just cracking jokes and holding her at an emotional arm's length the same as everyone else. But, somehow, she'd grown on him. It wasn't they way she laughed along with him, that number of people was about equal to those who groaned or shook their head, nor was it any one specific thing he could put his finger on. He was mulling it over one day, trying to disentagle and disengage himself from the warmth she gave to his soul when she was around, when Gaster let himself into Sans' room. It was a rare time he was caught off guard, and this was one of them.
"Sans?"
He jumps about a foot in the air. "geeze, would it kill you to knock?"
"...I did. I had no answer, so I thought I would check in. What's got you all caught up?"
"nothing."
Gaster sighs. "Of course it's not. It never is."
Sans just glares at him.
"You seem like you and Alphys are getting close. I had hoped that it would start to pull you out of your funk, but apparently not."
Sans shrugs. "i'm getting along with her. that's what you wanted me to do, right?"
"If you say so." Gaster replies, refusing to take the bait this time. He saw how much the two bought out in each other, and he was glad about it. It had been completely unexpected, but it made more sense the more he thought about it. It helped them both, he thought, that they had an unspoken common ground. Although it was plain to anyone with eyes or eye sockets that there was no romantic attachment, they were kindred spirits of a sort. They had enough differences to balance it out. He thought of the symbol that the humans were fond of, the white and black one who's name escaped him as he hadn't thought it important to remember, and thought it fitting. " That aside, I did actually come to speak to you about something. I've overheard Papyrus on the phone to you, and I have to ask. How long have you known about the problems with this Undyne?"
"about a week after it started." So it probably was connected. He'd have to have a word with Papyrus. Sans watches his face, and sees Gaster put the pieces together. "don't you dare."
"Listening to him is not-"
"it's the only thing i can do for him from in here, so i repeat: don't. you. dare."
"Sans... I know you want to make him feel better but you shouldn't be doing it if it's going to affect you so deeply."
"and that's for me to decide. and besides... don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?"
"I do it because I worry, Sans, and it seems to be the only way I can find out anything."
"look. i've kept my head down and i've played nice. i'm getting on with my work, i'm getting along with alphys. so, i'm going to say it one more time." the pupils blank out, and Gaster has to supress a shudder. "Don't you dare."
The moment is gone as fast as it was there, and Gaster sighs. And against his better judgement... "Fine. I won't say anything, but you need to work this out. Maybe even talk to Alphys, she might be able to help you."
"you've been awful eager for us to hang out. don't tell me you hired me a friend." Sans gives him a flat look.
"Trust me, that wasn't the intention at all. But it's nice that you think of her that way. Maybe you should make more people cry."

There's a long pause, Gaster just sat with a smug smile. After a few beats, Sans can't help it. He throws a pillow at Gaster, and doubles over laughing. Ass. He'll get him back for that one.